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History of Orange County
Agriculture Society
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The Legislature of the State, in order and with a view to encourage the infant Agricultural Societies, which were springing up in many of the Counties, and enable them to award premiums, passed an act in 1819 for the promotion of agriculture and family domestic manufactures, and appropriated $10,000 per year for two years, to be distributed among the several Counties in proportion to population. The share for Orange was $300. The grant was timely and patriotic . In 1818 Gov. Clinton presented to this Society some wheat from Minorca and Egypt,—which the Society placed in the bands of several of its members, to be distributed in small parcels to such as called for it, with a view to sow them and test their qualities in this climate.
This Society continued its organization, and held its annual meetings in Goshen till the year 1825, when it was permitted to expire and die away, by the very class of citizens for whose especial benefit it was originally instituted. It is not our business to chide or condemn the farming interest of the County for permitting the Institution to descend to an untimely grave. They were its fathers and patrons—for them it was born—and if, in their experience, they found it not answering the end of its creation and worthless, they were the proper judges to decree whether it should live or die.
The last and expiring act of the Society was among the most glorious of its life. In 1825 Gen. La Fayette visited the United States, and in his triumphal march through the country, marked by the joyful greetings of ten millions of freemen—such as ancient warrior never saw—honored Newburgh with a call. At this time the Society was yet alive, and Johannes Miller, Esq., of Montgomery, the President. During the evening of the visit, the old Patriot Hero was several times addressed by the representatives of different corporate bodies, who reminded him of his early and friendly offides to the country—of his great personal services in the day of her extreme necessities—of her victories and triumph, in which the largely participated—and in the name of a grateful people, thanked him for his youthful services in her behalf—bade him welcome wide as the domain his youthful sword had conquered—tendered him its hospitalities and a safe return to the dear and vine clad hills of his ancestors.— Among these was Mr. Miller, gray headed and hoary, the representative of the Society, who, in executing the task assigned him, honored himself and crowned its death with victory. Thus it acted, and then it died.
In 1841 the Legislature passed another act for the promotion of Agriculture and household manufactures, and appropriated the sum of $8,000 annually, for five years, to be distributed in premiums in the several counties. The share of Orange was $152 per year.